When yes means nai. Greece & battered wife syndrome
I know, how childish. How so very News of the World of me, but I couldn’t resist. The Greeks are voting today
Oxi: No to the euro-deal
Nai: Yes to the euro-deal
I hope they vote oxi. The Greek suicide rate has gone up by over 40% since the crisis began. Child poverty has jumped from 23% to 40.5%. 2.5 million people are living below the poverty line with almost three times that number living very close to that line. Europe’s answer to those problems has been appalling. What sort of sick union is it that allows a ‘partner’ to be in this situation? And shockingly, wants to impose measures that can only make things get worse.
The truth is there should have been a Marshall plan recovery program put in place for Greece, Spain, Portugal & Ireland. Instead, more debt was piled on as money was pumped into banks to cover up mismanagement; and the people are still paying the price.
The Greeks could change that today.
My Mazamet 
The euro is a failed project – based on dubious economics and implemented for political reasons. It’s time Merkel, Hollande and their minions would have the courage to admit that the euro was a mistake.
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There was never a real need for a monetary union. A common project and free movement was quite enough.
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I agree.
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Subscribing to hear more from the comment section. I don’t know nearly enough, but I do know that what E posted is true, and I am equally appalled.
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Not easy to summarise, but here goes:
Greece has never had a solid economy. They joined the eurozone by faking their balance sheets. Banks like Goldman Sachs helped them. After they were in, they needed to borrow a lot of money to keep the charade going. Seeing the opportunity at hand, banks from first tier EU economies set up shop in Greece so they could lend them money at premium rates (much higher than to the UK, France or Germany.)
Just like any scheme of that variety, it was unsustainable. It all blew up in everyone’s faces when the financial crisis hit. At that point banks had to lend more money to Greece, just so Greece could pay them (the banks) back.
The EU solution was austerity, but the Greek GDP fell by 25%. All savings made from austerity were lost by the fall in gdp. So here we are again and the wheel has come full circle.
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I read somewhere that if Greece had its own currency [again] the country would be able to do something with it to help the situation, but I’m clueless as to what that might be. If the Greeks do vote oxi, what then? How will the people eat?
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If Greece has its own currency, they can devalue it by printing more money. That means that it’ll be worth less than the euro- in turn that means that suddenly Greek products and services will be more attractive to people using stronger currencies.
The Med countries didn’t become popular vacation places just because of the weather, in the pre-euro days Spain, Portugal & Greece were also very good value.
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Ah! Yes that was it. I suspect that’s what the Finance Minister wanted, and why he may have been pushed to resign. Interesting times.
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Oxi it is. We live in interesting times.
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I couldn’t agree more, I’m sick of people complaining about Greece’s excesses. When did we all become such selfish as……?
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And the excess talk is a bunch of rubbish. Greece is and always has been one of the poorest countries in Europe. They’ve never lived in the lap of luxury. Greek minimum wage is €683. France’s minimum wage is €1457. People really need to get a grip on reality…
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There was a good presentation on NPR (National Public Radio), today, by someone with an Irish accent. He said mentioned also that Greece has an old population, lots of pensioners. Cut their income, and that has to cut consumer spending, which undermines everything else as well. He quoted how high the unemployment rate is, so people are working for incredibly low wages already. There simply isn’t anything more to cut — except, perhaps, from the wealthiest tiny percent who weren’t paying their fair share of taxes to begin with. (That part about the wealthiest sounded like the USA and probably quite a few other places, too.)
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I’m glad that the Greeks have resisted the pressure and the propaganda….50% counted and the Noes have 61% as I read at the moment.
These debts were incurred to cover the backs of incompetent EU banks…..so perhaps we could now focus on how they propose to pay back their immoral earnings.
And i’d be getting the mattress ready to receive cash if i had my money in Societe Generale or Credit Agricole….
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Forgive all debt and start again. Learn from the mistakes.
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If we’re 100% honest, it isn’t even really about forgiving debt. A lot of money has been made in the process. It’s about not making even more on the backs of these people.
I know exactly how it works because I had a Spanish IRPH mortgage (now illegal!)
The rates were abusive and manipulated by the banks. At one point 4 percentage points higher than the Euribor.
That’s many thousands per year extra in artificially inflated interest. Had I defaulted half way in, they would have been more than covered for the totality of the debt.
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That’s what i’m saying. This capital system that has established itself is not good. The systems have become geared in all the wrong ways. Markets can work, and we could take this opportunity to start afresh. 2.0 won’t be perfect, but we can work to making it better than 1.0. And as you said, no one has actually lost money here. Obscene amounts have been earned.
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Worse: It’s not new. In 1983, I took out my first medical school loan: at 13 3/8%, compounded every six months, set up for the banks by and guaranteed by the US government. Soon after, the interest on student loans suddenly became no longer tax deductible. Our US government has taken so much profit from our students, the students can’t get well enough on their feet to properly prepare the next generation. Now, it’s two generations later, and the situation is dire. Student loans become permanent shackles. And, for doctors, if one defaults, the government destroys his or her medical profession, then continues to demand payment when there is no way to earn a living. Doctors are “over-educated” for underpaying jobs and unemployable when government-targeted.
Take that mentality, apply it to home loans, and cause the 2008 collapse. Apply it to nation-states, and cause the many deaths by suicide in Greece, not to mention other likely deaths from missing unaffordable medications, decent nutritions, and the addition of prolonged and severe stress. How many are now too sick to work, in the US as well, because of this economic insanity? Even mere greed can’t explain this; this is insane.
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I don’t understand this. The government is supposed to spend money on social services and benefits. If the government does not have money, it automatically means “austerity” – cuts in social services and benefits. Getting money AND having “austerity” does not make sense. The people are screwed either way.
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I’ve a new idea: Sacrifice any of those “too big to fail” banks to pay off Greece’s debt. The bank’s employees will have to find new jobs, but they’re in better positions to do so than the Greek unemployed. The bank was dangerous, being “too big to fail.” Now it’s gone, so that danger is taken care of. And, it sends a signal to other banks: They’re next. Perhaps HSBC would be a good first case. They certainly proved their unethical and heartless greed over the past decade.
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